The Poetry Bus Hits Manhattan, part 5: Entering Intermission

The following is a continuation of this post here.

Now. Where were we? Ah yes, Monica Fambrough has read, Ashbery has departed, and the night is still young.

Nick Flynn was next on the list, but he had not yet arrived. John Godfrey read instead. I barely remember him (no offense, sir, if you googled yourself, and stumbled here). He read the following poems: "With Fictions," "City of Corners," "Comes with Galore," "Ladder in One Hand," "Waltz of the Drakes," "Through the Wall," and "Four Wings." Titles are as accurate as I could decipher them to be. No sign of any of them on the web.



Next we had Christian Hawkey. Hawkey (left) read four poems: "Water in the Ear," one whose title I missed, "Report from the Undersecretary of Inquests," and "Threat Advisory Elevated."

After Hawkey came Major Jackson (right). View his web page here.
He read four poems: "You Are Almost Invisible in All This Plain Decay" (which is excerpted in a review here), "Maddeningly Elusive, Yet Endlessly Tempting," "North of Diamond Lake, the Cascades, Crossmarks," and a last section of "Letter to Brooks: Spring Garden," reprinted here on the Poetry magazine website.

Next up was Noelle Kocot (left), with four poems, three of which you can peruse on line: "Bus Tour Poem," "Sestina for Lizzette," "Postlude," and "Positive Monsters."

Jon Woodward (right) ended the first half of the reading at 6:45 PM with a bunch of untitled pieces.

With the first half of the reading ending, the Typing Explosion resumed its activities. The reading was estimated to resume around 8:00 PM. I scurried about trying to get autographs for my books, but many of the poets disappeared, presumably to grab a bite to eat, and hopefully not to go home. I had my Ashbery signature, but only managed to grab four more signatures: 2 from Mary Jo Bang in the Best American Poetry (BAP) volumes 2001 and 2004, 2 from Thomas Sayers Ellis in BAP '97 and BAP '01, one from Major Jackson in BAP '04, Noelle Kocot in BAP '01, and Timothy Donnelly in a book called Poetry Daily: 366 Poems from the World's Most Popular Poetry Website.

I've had this anthology for over a year and never had endeavored to get it signed. I mean, it has 366 poems in it with almost as many poets. However, this reading featured several individuals that were not in any of my other anthologies. So, as long as I was going to be there, I might as well include some new people in the anthological madness.

It's a cool book. Buy it here.

Anyway, I was halfway through the evening, and it only took 5 posts to tell you about it. Stay tuned for parts 6 and 7.